From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

I want to scan a small quantity of negatives as I sort through some old
family stuff, and turn them into jpegs. I once had a slide scanner I
think from Lidl which was perfectly good enough for my purposes. I
chucked it out when I couldn't get it to work on any windows after XP,
let alone linux.

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the
cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is there
any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them have
generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

TW
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

TimW wrote:

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the
cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is there
any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them have
generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

I posed the qx to gglAIov and got a thorough answer. Too much to paste; here's the link and the query.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-lm&q=linux+compatible+film+or+slide+scanner

Qx: linux compatible film or slide scanner
--
Mike Easter
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On 12/5/25 6:03 PM, TimW wrote:

I want to scan a small quantity of negatives as I sort through some old family stuff, and turn them into jpegs. I once had a slide scanner I
think from Lidl which was perfectly good enough for my purposes. I
chucked it out when I couldn't get it to work on any windows after XP,
let alone linux.

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the
cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is there
any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them have
generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

TW

Do you have any links to some you've already found? I mean ones that seem to have merit.
When I did have a large bulky scanner that had a tray to scan 4 at a time, I found that
VueScan software was the best going. And there are a lot of write-ups about it too.

https://www.hamrick.com/film-slide-scanning-software.html
And it seems to have a Linux version.
--
Linux Mint 22.2, Mozilla Thunderbird 140.5.0esr, Mozilla Firefox 145.0.2
Alan K.
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Fri, 12/5/2025 6:03 PM, TimW wrote:

I want to scan a small quantity of negatives as I sort through some old family stuff, and turn them into jpegs. I once had a slide scanner I think from Lidl which was perfectly good enough for my purposes. I chucked it out when I couldn't get it to work on any windows after XP, let alone linux.

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is there any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them have generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

TW

You can see the various types. If you are bulk scanning (you're not),
then you buy upscale for the privilege of actual functionality.
Real film/slide scanners would not drive you nuts.

Good scanners apparently auto-focus (just like your slide projector used
to auto-focus), cheesy stuff offers no chance to do a plus/minus
(i.e. even a manual) focus adjustment. I already learned my lesson
with the CMOS scanner about depth of field (after my CCD based
scanner with good depth of field, crapped out).

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/buying-guides/the-best-film-scanners

Here, I will pretend to check my Canoscan LiDE 300 (used to scan tax forms). You can check basic scanners like flatbeds here. The slide scanners can be
two pass, one pass for RGB, a second pass for an infrared "dust and scratch" removal scan. Unless the manufacturer writes a software for a dust and
scratch film/slide scanner, it is unlikely a FOSS kit will exist for this. (Yes, you might do the RGB or CMYK pass.)

http://sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html#Z-CANON

CanoScan LiDE 300 USB 0x04a9/0x1913 Complete All resolutions supported (up to 2400DPI) pixma(0.28.6)

The PlusTek are missing Linux for a number of slide scanners.

https://plustek.com/afr/support/os-compatibility/

OpticFilm 135i <=== has some kind of support, maybe isn't Silverfast based?

The Hamrick Vuescan is for operating scanners on Windows PCs, that
would otherwise not work. You can see here, they do Linux now.
I believe there is a trial version for testing out the product.
But this won't help you, without a review so you know in advance
whether it is fully featured.

https://www.hamrick.com/alternate-versions.html

You could install a Windows OS, do your scans and then delete it.
Just as a means of increasing your odds of getting something done.

The grace period on Windows (10/11) is infinity, only the "Personalize" menu doesn't work. And you can select a background image to replace the
default desktop one, in File Explorer and "use as background" to
make the OS suitable for a project. The Windows 10 OS was available in
32-bit and 64-bit, and would have been a bit better than Windows 11 from
the perspective of "hardware required". Use the rufus.ie USB stick preparation tool for overriding *some* of the hardware requirements. My E8400 processor cannot run Win11 under any circumstances, as the Core2 Duo lacks PopulationCount
SSE4 instruction. Rufus cannot override that one.

There are a few sites that have reviewed this type of scanner. As long as you ignore the usual decorations such sites use.

https://www.35mmc.com/04/05/2021/plustek-opticfilm-135i-35mm-film-scanner/

*******

This topic violates some of my rules-of-acquisition. I have a few bits of
crap in the junk room, to remind me of not doing my research. The "smell"
on this topic, is overpoweringly "failure" smell :-) I would be the kind of
guy that would spend 500, only to later discover while reading even more
web articles, that it just wasn't going to work.

My previous scanner (a rather large flatbed at $1500), it had a transparency adapter on top as standard equipment, came with slide adapter, large
format film adapter, even an IT-8 calibration target. In other words,
if it was a cake, it had all the layers of icing on it to fool you
into thinking you had bought a cake. The problem ? Scanner doesn't
have a high enough resolution for doing that sort of work. My one negative scan, the conversion to positive was good, but the *grain* was terrible.
I only had to process one frame, to realize this part of the project
was a "fail". I hadn't bought it for that, but still, part of the
price of the item is so it can do these things, which... it can't do.

Time was, there were products out there, you *knew* they worked,
they were just pricey. Whereas today, there are lots of half-assed
products not the same as the old shoe-box scanners, to annoy you
as you search and search for a decent review. Piling Linux compatibility
on top of that, that's a stretch too far. I could buy my Canoscan LiDE 300 without worrying too much about the Linux side of things, as the machine
only has one thing to do, and no advanced maths are required. I know
I can buy one of those for 100 and there is nothing to fear. The largest
loss is the 100, to start with. It doesn't really focus properly
(even when a large weight is placed on the paper), but it is good enough
for my tax filing scans.

Paul
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

TimW wrote:

I want to scan a small quantity of negatives as I sort through some
old family stuff, and turn them into jpegs. I once had a slide scanner
I think from Lidl which was perfectly good enough for my purposes. I
chucked it out when I couldn't get it to work on any windows after XP,
let alone linux.

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the
cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is
there any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them
have generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

TW

many inkjet printers have an insert for scanning slides/negatives, and
of course can scan photos/pictures. also the negatives/slides/photo
scanner I have saves the output to an SD card, which LM can read of
course. Maybe you could get either of these?
--
Linux Mint 22.2

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On 05/12/2025 23:03, TimW wrote:

I want to scan a small quantity of negatives as I sort through some old family stuff, and turn them into jpegs. I once had a slide scanner I
think from Lidl which was perfectly good enough for my purposes. I
chucked it out when I couldn't get it to work on any windows after XP,
let alone linux.

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the
cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is there
any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them have
generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

You might find this of interest, and perhaps a bit of a warning as to
what might work and might not work with LM! <https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=416314>
I've since upgraded to 22.2, but haven't tried the scanner since the
upgrade.
--
Jeff
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 12/6/2025 4:22 AM, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 05/12/2025 23:03, TimW wrote:

I want to scan a small quantity of negatives as I sort through some old
family stuff, and turn them into jpegs. I once had a slide scanner I
think from Lidl which was perfectly good enough for my purposes. I
chucked it out when I couldn't get it to work on any windows after XP,
let alone linux.

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the
cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is there
any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them have
generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

You might find this of interest, and perhaps a bit of a warning as to what might work and might not work with LM!
<https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=416314>
I've since upgraded to 22.2, but haven't tried the scanner since the upgrade.

I can find a post dated 2002 discussing that scanner.

If I had to guess, the config space of the scanner reports it is
USB2, while the hardware is actually USB1.1 . It's possible the OSes
of the time were working, but didn't have enough "quirks" coded
to make a robust driver. The scanner may be fibbing about what it is,
over USB.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/epson-2450-failed-on-usb2-0-but-not-usb1-1.194/

If the hardware design is bugged on the scanner, you might need
real/actual USB1.1 ports on a computer to test it. The designs
that had a NEC USB2 chip (early USB2 era) would still have
USB1.1 ports on the Southbridge to use.

I do have a piece of junk in the junk room for this. I have
a new in box Opti 82C861 USB1.1 chip with two USB connectors (white tab),
and that has a PCI edge connector on it. It only has one slot cut
instead of two slots (I'll have to look that up). So if I want genuine USB1.1 ports with no possibility of USB2.0 interpretation, I can have it :-)
The card cost me $49 back in the day. The plan was possibly "if the
USB 1.1 ports on this pig are ESD-ruined, what then". It was a spare.
I have a ten year old PC that still has a PCI slot.

Paul
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On 05/12/2025 23:03, TimW wrote:

I want to scan a small quantity of negatives as I sort through some old family stuff, and turn them into jpegs. I once had a slide scanner I
think from Lidl which was perfectly good enough for my purposes. I
chucked it out when I couldn't get it to work on any windows after XP,
let alone linux.

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the
cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is there
any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them have
generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

TW

Thanks all for the answers. A solution has presented itself this morning
- Some scanners will write a jpeg directly to an SD card, no computer required, no drivers, can't fail!

Tim W
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From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On 06/12/2025 11:00, Paul wrote:

On Sat, 12/6/2025 4:22 AM, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 05/12/2025 23:03, TimW wrote:

I want to scan a small quantity of negatives as I sort through some old
family stuff, and turn them into jpegs. I once had a slide scanner I
think from Lidl which was perfectly good enough for my purposes. I
chucked it out when I couldn't get it to work on any windows after XP,
let alone linux.

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the
cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is there >>> any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them have
generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

You might find this of interest, and perhaps a bit of a warning as to what might work and might not work with LM!
<https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=416314>
I've since upgraded to 22.2, but haven't tried the scanner since the upgrade.

I can find a post dated 2002 discussing that scanner.

If I had to guess, the config space of the scanner reports it is
USB2, while the hardware is actually USB1.1 . It's possible the OSes
of the time were working, but didn't have enough "quirks" coded
to make a robust driver. The scanner may be fibbing about what it is,
over USB.

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/epson-2450-failed-on-usb2-0-but-not-usb1-1.194/

If the hardware design is bugged on the scanner, you might need
real/actual USB1.1 ports on a computer to test it. The designs
that had a NEC USB2 chip (early USB2 era) would still have
USB1.1 ports on the Southbridge to use.

That was an interesting msi.com thread. FWIW, I never had any problem
with my XP setup and the 2450. Checking back though, I see that the PC
was only USB1 (bought in late 2001; the 2450 was bought in late 2002).
The PC had a Creative 5.1 card with Firewire port and that worked well
with the 2450. I think that later I bought a USB2 card and put that in a
spare slot, but don't think that I ever tried to use it with the 2450.

I found posts discussing the 2450/USB/Linux problem from 2006
(unfortunately the alioth.debian.org website the posts referred to no
longer exists). This is the gist of the posts: ========================================================

Yes, it would most certainly be worth trying, although I found an old
SANE bug report ("epson perfection photo 2450 doesn't work in ubuntu
5.04") at https://alioth.debian.org/tracker/?func=detail&group_id=30186&aid=302146&atid=410366

"Date: 2006-09-15 06:17
Sender: Nobody
Logged In: NO Just the same now with kubuntu 6.06.1
USB doesnt work, but does with firewire just fine."

Followed by:

"Date: 2007-04-09 03:08
Sender: Nobody

Ubuntu 6.10
Dell Inspiron 1100
Epson Perfection 2450 Photo

Sane recognizes my Epson Perfection 2450 Photo as an GT-9700:004 and
does not control it properly. It fails to communicate at all, really.
This is through the USB 2.0 interface.

After Xsane comes up, clicking the [Aquire Preview] button times out
with the error "Failed to start scanner: Error during I/O.".

The Sane-project.org site reports the EP 2450 as a supported scanner." ========================================================

Come to think of it, from what I remember the laptop thinks that the
scanner is not a 2450, but another Epson one (possibly the GT-9700, but
I'm not sure).
--
Jeff
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.mint

On Sat, 12/6/2025 6:42 AM, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 06/12/2025 11:00, Paul wrote:

On Sat, 12/6/2025 4:22 AM, Jeff Layman wrote:

On 05/12/2025 23:03, TimW wrote:

I want to scan a small quantity of negatives as I sort through some old >>>> family stuff, and turn them into jpegs. I once had a slide scanner I
think from Lidl which was perfectly good enough for my purposes. I
chucked it out when I couldn't get it to work on any windows after XP, >>>> let alone linux.

I am thinking I might be on a hiding to nothing hoping that any of the >>>> cheap consumer type scanners I can buy will work on linux mint. Is there >>>> any way of even knowing if they will work? Will some of them have
generic drivers and just work? Are any known to work?

You might find this of interest, and perhaps a bit of a warning as to what might work and might not work with LM!
<https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=416314>
I've since upgraded to 22.2, but haven't tried the scanner since the upgrade.

I can find a post dated 2002 discussing that scanner.

If I had to guess, the config space of the scanner reports it is
USB2, while the hardware is actually USB1.1 . It's possible the OSes
of the time were working, but didn't have enough "quirks" coded
to make a robust driver. The scanner may be fibbing about what it is,
over USB.

-a-a-a https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/epson-2450-failed-on-usb2-0-but-not-usb1-1.194/

If the hardware design is bugged on the scanner, you might need
real/actual USB1.1 ports on a computer to test it. The designs
that had a NEC USB2 chip (early USB2 era) would still have
USB1.1 ports on the Southbridge to use.

That was an interesting msi.com thread. FWIW, I never had any problem with my XP setup and the 2450. Checking back though, I see that the PC was only USB1 (bought in late 2001; the 2450 was bought in late 2002). The PC had a Creative 5.1 card with Firewire port and that worked well with the 2450. I think that later I bought a USB2 card and put that in a spare slot, but don't think that I ever tried to use it with the 2450.

I found posts discussing the 2450/USB/Linux problem from 2006 (unfortunately the alioth.debian.org website the posts referred to no longer exists). This is the gist of the posts:
========================================================

Yes, it would most certainly be worth trying, although I found an old
SANE bug report ("epson perfection photo 2450 doesn't work in ubuntu
5.04") at https://alioth.debian.org/tracker/?func=detail&group_id=30186&aid=302146&atid=410366

"Date: 2006-09-15 06:17
Sender: Nobody
Logged In: NO Just the same now with kubuntu 6.06.1
USB doesnt work, but does with firewire just fine."

Followed by:

"Date: 2007-04-09 03:08
Sender: Nobody

Ubuntu 6.10
Dell Inspiron 1100
Epson Perfection 2450 Photo

Sane recognizes my Epson Perfection 2450 Photo as an GT-9700:004 and
does not control it properly. It fails to communicate at all, really.
This is through the USB 2.0 interface.

After Xsane comes up, clicking the [Aquire Preview] button times out
with the error "Failed to start scanner: Error during I/O.".

The Sane-project.org site reports the EP 2450 as a supported scanner." ========================================================

Come to think of it, from what I remember the laptop thinks that the scanner is not a 2450, but another Epson one (possibly the GT-9700, but I'm not sure).

I do not know when the era of "SOC" single-chip scanner designs began.

At one time, you would need a whole PCB full of chips, to
make a "jelly bean scanner controller".

At some point, National was one company that made a single-chip SOC.
This allowed the BOM cost for scanners to drop significantly. It also
allows interfaces for I/O, to all be implemented inside the SOC,
with better consistency.

Routers and modem/routers went through a similar process.
Eventually, a single chip did everything and they no longer needed
to use more than one PCB for the components.

I wasn't able to find a picture of the controller for the thing.

One of the reasons my current scanner is relatively fast, is
I don't really scan over 300DPI on resolution.

*******

http://sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html

Perfection 2450 USB IEEE-1394 0x04b8/0x0112 Complete epson (0.2.42 (unmaintained))
Perfection 2450 PHOTO USB IEEE1394 0x04b8/0x0112 Complete overseas version of the GT-9700F epson2
GT-9700F USB IEEE1394 0x04b8/0x0112 Complete epson2

There's some excuse for the driver and software to get confused.

When devices have the same device ID, you need the driver to
reach in and discover "unique" markers to serve as PNP info.

The BT878 cards (wintv tuners), there were twelve or more designs and
the driver had to sniff each board type and figure it out.

Paul

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